1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a plant for transferring a wire coil from a coil forming chamber of a coil forming station of a cooling conveyor onto a C-shaped hook of a hook-type conveyor equipped with travel rails.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conveyor systems, for example, with overhead tracks and with the possibility of carrying out transfer procedures are known in the art. They provide the possibility of transferring wire coils from conveying units to other conveying circuits, auxiliary travel paths or lifting stations. Also possible is the controlled travel through switches. In the current state of the art, such conveying systems have to carry out far-reaching tasks, for example, distributing, sorting or acting as buffers, wherein all of this has to be carried out at relatively high conveying capacities. On the other hand, also known in the art are fully automatic wire coil forming stations downstream of wire trains.
For example, DE 35 25 089 C2 describes a wire coil forming station following a coiler with cooling line which includes several receiving mandrels which are arranged inclined on a shaft at equal angle distances from each other and at the same angle relative to the axis thereof and which can be swung by rotating the shaft successively into an approximately vertical coil forming position or an essentially horizontal coil transfer position, wherein segments of the receiving mandrels can be moved in such a way that the circumference of the receiving mandrels changes. For this purpose, the segments are coupled to the shaft through a mechanical forced control, so that the segments are moved during the rotary movement of the shaft and as a result of the rotary movement of the shaft with changing circumferences of the receiving mandrels.